I am running xfce4 on my laptop. the graphic card is ATi HD Radeon mobility 4570. I heard that ati open sourced drivers doesn't have power manager, so it will be unpleasant when it is unplugged with AC adaptor. That's why I chose fglrx and have been using this until now. All go very well.

Today, I got some news. From catalyst 12.6, my card won't be supported by fglrx. The bottom line is Radeon 5xxx. In addition, I am trying to use cairo-dock with opengl, but it sucks. I've confirmed that it is due to the graphic card, either the hardware, the drivers or cairo-dock's code for this part,. So I start thinking of moving to use the open sourced driver. But I still have some questions.

First one and of course the important one is whether the open sourced drivers have improved the power manager. Does it do well in economizing the power when I use battery?

Heard of weak performance if we compare it with the fglrx drivers, but is the gap so big? For the record, I don't use software with high demand for graphics card. But I always watch HD videos, 720p even 1080p.

First one and of course the important one is whether the open sourced drivers have improved the power manager. Does it do well in economizing the power when I use battery?

I don't know if it has improved but it's definitively not as good as the fglrx drivers.

pd1986 wrote:

Heard of weak performance if we compare it with the fglrx drivers, but is the gap so big? For the record, I don't use software with high demand for graphics card. But I always watch HD videos, 720p even 1080p.

It's really big. I usually get about 5 times as high framerate with fglrx. The open source drivers doesn't have hardware decoding for videos yet. Maybe for mpeg2, I don't know.

First one and of course the important one is whether the open sourced drivers have improved the power manager. Does it do well in economizing the power when I use battery?

I don't know if it has improved but it's definitively not as good as the fglrx drivers.

pd1986 wrote:

Heard of weak performance if we compare it with the fglrx drivers, but is the gap so big? For the record, I don't use software with high demand for graphics card. But I always watch HD videos, 720p even 1080p.

It's really big. I usually get about 5 times as high framerate with fglrx. The open source drivers doesn't have hardware decoding for videos yet. Maybe for mpeg2, I don't know.

Thanks for your opinion. So in this case, I will keep the driver supporting my card for ever.

Hi,pd1986.
I use open sourced drivers with almost the same (ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5400 Series) on my laptop. I am extremely happy with it.
I don't know what level of hardware decoding for videos is available, but I watch HD videos, 720p, 1080p with no problem.
I think the open sourced drivers have really improved, since I begin to use.
Also power management is available. I use laptop-mode-tools to control it. It can control whether it is plugged or not and change the power profile for the card. Also it can control the brightness.
Even I can play games with it. I have to say, open sourced drivers is extremely stable. I can't remember a time it crashed for a long time.
Maybe not all these features are in the level of binary driver, but definitely works fine.
I just suggest you try the open sourced drivers, and make your decision yourself.
I use driver in kernel-3.6.0-rc6 and xf86-video-ati-6.14.6-r1 and mesa-9.0_pre20120918._________________Anyway it's all the same at the end...
Need help to get it working: "x-fi surround 5.1"

Hi,pd1986.
I use open sourced drivers with almost the same (ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5400 Series) on my laptop. I am extremely happy with it.
I don't know what level of hardware decoding for videos is available, but I watch HD videos, 720p, 1080p with no problem.
I think the open sourced drivers have really improved, since I begin to use.
Also power management is available. I use laptop-mode-tools to control it. It can control whether it is plugged or not and change the power profile for the card. Also it can control the brightness.
Even I can play games with it. I have to say, open sourced drivers is extremely stable. I can't remember a time it crashed for a long time.
Maybe not all these features are in the level of binary driver, but definitely works fine.
I just suggest you try the open sourced drivers, and make your decision yourself.
I use driver in kernel-3.6.0-rc6 and xf86-video-ati-6.14.6-r1 and mesa-9.0_pre20120918.

I will try and compare the battery use time between the two drivers one day.
Frankly, besides some particular use in linux, I don't see the need of high performance graphic card.

@pd1986:...and that will help you...not a bit.
If xorg-server breaks the ABI (as it often does), the old binary driver tends to get useless.

what do you mean about the it? breaks the ABI?

At some point, the X server will change its interface in such a way that the graphics drivers from before the change will cease to work. When that happens, you must switch to a graphics driver that has been adjusted for the change. If you use a driver which is no longer maintained, then no adjusted graphics driver will be made and you will be forced to retain a legacy X server or switch to a different driver.

According to your first post, you expect that newer versions of the proprietary driver will not support your card. If that is correct, then you will be left with these choices:

Use a legacy X server and legacy proprietary ATI drivers.

Use a modern X server, modern proprietary ATI drivers, and be unable to use your video card.

Use a modern X server and modern open graphics driver that supports your card.

@pd1986:...and that will help you...not a bit.
If xorg-server breaks the ABI (as it often does), the old binary driver tends to get useless.

what do you mean about the it? breaks the ABI?

At some point, the X server will change its interface in such a way that the graphics drivers from before the change will cease to work. When that happens, you must switch to a graphics driver that has been adjusted for the change. If you use a driver which is no longer maintained, then no adjusted graphics driver will be made and you will be forced to retain a legacy X server or switch to a different driver.

According to your first post, you expect that newer versions of the proprietary driver will not support your card. If that is correct, then you will be left with these choices:

Use a legacy X server and legacy proprietary ATI drivers.

Use a modern X server, modern proprietary ATI drivers, and be unable to use your video card.

Use a modern X server and modern open graphics driver that supports your card.

That means I will be forced to migrate to open source very soon if I want to use new xorg. Very well.

Best bet is to avoid ati graphics in the future - that's what I plan to do.

What? It is the reverse: At all costs avoid NVidia not ATI. AMDs supports open source driver development. I can comfortably use my thinkpad with open source drivers. Have I had NVidia gfx card I would be screwed, since nouveau is almost useless and NVidia is not supportive if not hostile towards any form of supporting open source drivers.

pd1986,

Quote:

Heard of weak performance if we compare it with the fglrx drivers, but is the gap so big? For the record, I don't use software with high demand for graphics card. But I always watch HD videos, 720p even 1080p.

With my x1300 mobility I can watch 1080p vids without any fuss. Basic blender modeling is not a trouble.